Breaking Inside
by a-citizen-of-asgard
Summary: After the Battle of Manhattan, Tony Stark can't come to terms with what his life has become. Very short Pepperony drabble. Movieverse.


**A/N: My first Pepperony fic, very short and fairly angsty. Started off as an RP on Omegle but the server cut off and I decided to turn it into a mini-fic for your reading pleasure. Enjoy**

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Tony was sat on the landing pad of Stark Tower, legs dangling off the edge, a half-empty bottle of scotch next to him. It was well past midnight by now, he was pretty sure he was the last person awake in the tower. Tony watched the sea of lights below him, desperately trying to distance himself from his problems. It didn't work. It never did.

Letting out a sigh of relief when she finally shut down her computer, Pepper stood up and stretched, her neck feeling a little stiff after being sat in the same position for so long. She left her office and went to look for Tony, seeing as she hadn't seen him and he hadn't come to see her earlier in the night.

Tony swallowed another mouthful of scotch, sighing heavily. Nothing had felt right since what the press were calling the Battle of Manhattan. The nightmares he'd thought he'd recovered from after Afghanistan had returned. But he'd kept it to himself. Everyone thought he was fine, and that was the way he intended to keep it. It would be so easy to give in and tell Pepper... but that wasn't fair.

Eventually, Pepper found Tony where he was sat on the landing pad, frowning when she saw the scotch. She wrapped her suit jacket a little tighter around herself and walked over, sitting down beside him, "Asking you if you're okay would be a really dumb thing to say wouldn't it?" She said quietly.

Tony jumped, hands tightening their hold on the edge of his perch, turning his head to face her. Shit. He'd been caught now. He knew Pepper wouldn't let this lie, not now. He nodded silently.

She smiled softly, "Thought so." Pepper looked away from him and instead looked out at the New York skyline, listening to the sounds of the city that never sleeps. She knew full well that Tony wouldn't tell her what was wrong, and she knew that pushing him for an answer wouldn't help in the slightest.

Tony rubbed a hand down his face. The silence unnerved him and he felt he had to explain something. Somehow. "I can't do this Pep," he said softly.

"Do what?" she asked knowing there were several different things he could be referring to, all of them flitting around inside her head.

Tony shrugged. "Any of it." He paused. "I don't know what I'm doing any more." He sighed heavily again, hand moving to grasp the bottle of scotch beside him once more.

She frowned as he went for the bottle and carefully reached across him to take it before he could have another drink, "Alcohol won't help you," she said seriously, "I just wish I could," she added quietly.

Tony swallowed hard, turning to face her. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "It's not your fault." He didn't want Pepper to be hurt by this, hurt by him. "I don't know how," he added.

"Neither do I," she sighed looking down at the cars moving below them, "But even so I want you to know that I'm here for you no matter what."

Tony nodded, smiling a little wryly. "What did I do to deserve you?" he asked rhetorically. He didn't know what he'd do without Pepper, he really didn't.

Pepper laughed a little and looked up at him, "Come inside? It's a little cold out here," she wrapped her jacket a little tighter around her to emphasize her point, "And I'm not leaving you alone out here in case you fall off of the building."

"I wouldn't fall off," Tony replied distantly, putting a little too much emphasis on the word 'fall' and wincing as he realised what he'd said.

Pepper glared at him when she realised what he meant, quickly looking away when she felt tears in her eyes at the way the sentence had come so easily from him.

Tony looked back at her, wishing desperately he could take the words back. He shuffled closer to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "I don't... I wouldn't, Pep, I promise," he hurried to say. Not while he still had her. Not while he still had this one good thing in his life.

She shook her head and closed her eyes, "Don't say that. We both know full well that you'd do something like that, but only I know exactly how I'd feel if you did," she pulled away from him and stood up.

"Pepper, please…" Tony got to his feet; surprisingly steady even though his head was swimming with scotch, and put his hands on Pepper's shoulders pulling her round to face him, "I would _never _do that to you. I wasn't thinking straight and I am so, so sorry." A sharp breeze whipped around the tower and Tony instinctively pulled Pepper towards him, shielding her from the cold. He buried his face in her hair, "I'm sorry," he murmured.

Pepper hid her face against his shoulder and screwed her eyes shut to keep back the tears, maybe, if she held onto him like this, everything would go away and they'd both be able to be happy. As if.

"Let's go inside," Tony whispered, gently guiding Pepper back inside the tower, avoiding the Norse God-shaped holes in the floor and the piles of rubble and broken glass.

The top floor of the tower had sustained the most damage but luckily the living areas below were relatively unaffected, a few smashed windows but that was it. The rest of the Avengers team had moved on, aside from Bruce who was staying at the tower until he could get a flight back to Calcutta. However, seeing as it was almost one in the morning, there was no-one else around as Pepper and Tony walked in silence to their room. Once there Tony changed into a pair of sweats and Pepper slipped her night shirt on before the two of them got into bed.

Tony wrapped his arm around Pepper and pulled her close, her head resting against his shoulder and her hand on his chest, in its natural position next to the arc reactor. Tony had Jarvis kill the lights and the pair lay in silence for a few minutes before Pepper spoke.

"I love you, never forget that," she said quietly, the words seemed to echo around the room.

Tony lifted her head to look at him, her face bathed in the light blue glow of the reactor, "I love you too, and I always will," he whispered kissing her softly.

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**A/N: Hope you liked it :) If you did, review and leave a comment, I might do more little drabbles like this when I'm bored.**

**Title is the name of a song by Shinedown, no copyright infringement intended, I do not own rights to the song or title, nor do I own Marvel or the characters in this fic (I wish). Kudos to whoever I was RPing with on Omegle to start this off :P**


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